


Of Sketchbooks and Space Heaters

by Introverts_Diaries



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Rated T for light swearing, based off how vixx's manager and stylist got married, i can't write, norenmin if you squint - Freeform, side chensung, this is fluffy, this is really just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 03:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18002528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Introverts_Diaries/pseuds/Introverts_Diaries
Summary: When Doyoung signed up to be a manager at sm entertainment, he had no idea he would be forced to take care of 7 energetic teenagers, and he really had no idea that he would meet the love of his life through a misplaced sketchbook and a slightly-too-hot space heater.





	Of Sketchbooks and Space Heaters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> hi guys this took me way too long but i'm actually happy with it! please don't be mean

Doyoung had no idea how he had ended up in this situation. Of course, he physically remembered going in for the interview at SM. He remembers quite vividly, actually. He remembers the nerves he had as he walked into the massive building. He remembers his sweaty hands as he shook the hands of a higher up that he couldn’t remember the name of to save his life. No, he had no idea how he ended up with 7 rowdy children under his care. Not that he minded all that much. Yes, the Dreamies were a handful and could be irritating at times, but they were a good bunch. Doyoung couldn’t help but feel bad when he snapped at them after a bad day. He cared a lot about his Dreamies. (Not that he’d ever be caught dead saying that out loud)

“Mark. Where the hell are the rest of the Dreamies? You little monsters have to be on set in like half an hour! Go get their asses up!” Doyoung huffed, his voice raising a full octave as his face went flush with color. Mark just chuckled into his cereal, dragging his feet as he went to go put his bowl in the sink already full of dishes, and to finally go wake up the other members.

Doyoung sat down on the couch that was worn with age and overuse. He huffed and played with the holes in the brown fabric as he waited for the boys to get ready. 

 

After what felt like much longer than a half-hour, he finally hauled all the members into a van. Doyoung thought he could finally relax in the heat of the van, but that hope was crushed before his eyes when Donghyuck literally tried to strangle Jaemin with a shoelace because he said he likes Renjun better than him. Doyoung simply sighed and plucked the shoelace from Donghyuck’s hands, rolled down the window, and threw the lace onto oncoming traffic. 

 

Great, and now he has a headache. This is going to be a long day. He managed to get the boys out of the car without any casualties. But his struggle was far from over. He still had to somehow keep them all together and escort them to hair and makeup in one piece. Quite the feat considering that everyone in the group was still a teenager with the attention span of a pop tart.

 

Chenle and Jisung were the calmest of the group. They were too busy fiddling with each other’s fingers to notice the chaos around them.

 

“Renjun I swear to god if you don’t let go of me I will tell Jeno and Jaemin that you-” Donghyuck loosely threatened to a sleepy Renjun laying his head on Hyuck’s shoulder. The threat only made the tired boy cuddle up even closer, but Hyuck didn’t actually mind too much, he secretly loved the affection. So, he silently ruffled Renjun’s red hair and leaned his head against the boy on his shoulder when he thought no one was looking.

 

Doyoung inwardly cooed at the sight of the boys cuddling. They were usually so snippy with each other, so it was a welcome image when the two let down the faces they usually put on and stopped pretending to hate each other. If only it were that easy.

 

“Why the hell aren’t the boys in yet? I swear Doyong, or whatever the hell his name is utterly useless at this! Who even hired him? Next slip up and i swear i’m going to shove this-” ‘Ah,’ Doyoung thought inwardly. He should’ve known that he would be here. He sighed quietly when heard a familiar shrill voice yell from somewhere around the corner. There he is, in all his glory. The other reason today is going to be so hard.

 

One man in Doyoung’s life had the capability to completely ruin his day, and that man was Ten. Complete with a fiery attitude and a stuck up demeanor- Ten was the perfect person to fill the role of the biggest nuisance in the entire universe. Because Ten wasn’t just annoying. No, he wasn’t. He was clever. Too clever for his own good. Which is what made him such a threat, he knew exactly how to get on Doyoung’s nerves, he knew how to push every button Doyoung had. It was infuriating, especially when he would turn down or turn up the space heater in Doyoung’s office just enough to not be noticeable for anyone that isn’t Doyoung, so whenever Doyoung complained, everyone thought he was insane. But, as infuriating as the incident was, Doyoung had to give it to Ten, he was an evil genius. He would’ve looked up to him if the target of Ten’s endeavors wasn’t him.

 

But, don’t mistake his admiration for tolerance. Doyoung was going to make Ten pay dearly for his actions. He just needed to figure out how to really piss off Ten without actually harming him or getting in trouble. It would take some careful planning, but this is one of the moments where being the manager of 7 teenage boys comes in handy. He’s seen a fair share of pranks unfold at the dorms. Nothing too extreme of course, but things that are enough to have a funny story to tell at the dinner table in the future, so Doyoung has quite a library of harmless-but-infuriating pranks at his disposal.

 

It was during the filming of a landscape shot for the photoshoot that inspiration strikes. He is watching Ten intently, his eyes laser-focused for a moment of weakness when he sees it: Ten’s sketchbook. He carries the damn thing with him everywhere. ‘Incase he ever gets inspired when he’s out and about,’ he says. Doyoung is gonna hide it. Well, not hide it, per se. More like he is going to move it to a different spot every time Ten leaves it unattended.

 

Doyoung couldn’t contain his excitement as he strutted over to the office desk where Ten left the book. It really was a gorgeous book. It had a bright pink cover with a black rose outlined in silver glitter. The corners had peeled back quite a bit to reveal the cardboard base, faded with use. The silver spiral spine had lost its original shape and now had bent in a way that it took some effort to turn the pages back and forth. It was apparent that the thing had been used and loved for many years and had become sentimental to Ten. Doyoung almost felt bad that Ten would panic for a second thinking he had lost it. Keyword being almost.

 

Doyoung knew he had to move it somewhere that Ten would find it after a few minutes, and move it to a place Ten would realistically leave it, thus after many times of this happening, Ten would think he’s going a bit crazy, exactly how Doyoung felt when his space heater was tampered with. It was the perfect revenge plan. Doyoung moved the sketchbook from its resting place on the desk to a new home on a coffee table a few feet away. Boy, Doyoung couldn’t wait to see Ten’s reaction to seeing that his most treasured item wasn’t where he left it. It was the best feeling Doyoung could’ve imagined when he saw the panic in Ten’s face melt away and be replaced with confusion as he saw the item in question on the glass coffee table a little ways away.

 

“What did you do, Kim Doyoung?” Ten said angrily as he marched over to where Doyoung was standing, clutching onto his book for dear life.

‘No, this can’t happen! Not yet.’ Doyoung thought worriedly. Ten isn’t supposed to figure out it was him until at least a week after! He really had the audacity to go and be all smart like that. It wasn’t fair at all. He wasn’t allowed to be smart AND pretty. You can’t have both it’s not fair to everyone else.

 

“What on earth are you going on about now, Six? I haven’t done anything.” Doyoung looked at Ten smugly, knowing he hit a nerve with the name.

 

“ First off, my name is Ten, and I know that you know that. Second, I want to know why the hell you touched this book. This book has brought this company more money than our entire salaries combined, so you need to keep your, surprisingly nice hands off of it. Do you understand me?” Doyoung’s face went aflame at the comment about his hands, but he played it cool.

 

“I’m sorry Four, but I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no reason to mess with your book, okay?” With that, Doyoung spun on his heels and walked away from Ten with a smug smirk on his face. A smirk that would’ve stayed there if he hadn’t run into Chenle on the way back to his office.

 

“I heard from Jisung who heard from Jeno hyung who heard from Renjun hyung that you were flirting with Ten hyung just now. Is it true?” Chenle stated nonchalantly, putting an orange lollipop back into his mouth.

 

“How do you guys do that? It can’t be possible to spread a rumor that fast? Also, no I was not flirting with Ten. He’s my arch nemesis, I would never flirt with him.” Doyoung huffed dramatically, his bangs flying up in the wind.

“That’s not what my Jisungie said, but okay I guess.” Chenle ran off and now Doyoung had a clear view of the stairwell that Chenle was previously blocking, and he saw one Park Jisung giggling on the landing. He heard the two whispering as they walked up the stairs, hand-in-hand. He heard all too clearly when Chenle was telling Jisung the opposite of what Doyoung just said. These kids really were a handful. He loved them anyway, though.

 

Ten was not happy. Not happy at all. Doyoung could tell by the way his eyebrows squished together and his hands shook slightly over the sparkly new outfits for the day’s stage at Inkigayo. It was honestly the cutest thing Doyoung had ever seen. The boys were all probing him about why his face was so red and why his eyes were so puffy.

 

“Ten hyung what’s wrong?”

“Ten hyung why are you so red?”

“Ten hyung-”

 

“-I am acting perfectly normal thank you. If you must know, I’m slightly irritated by your annoyingly cute- ahem, manager Doyoung hyung, but it’s nothing to be worried about. Now, move along and put these on before I kick all of your asses. Don’t ever think that because you guys are my dongsaengs it excludes you from an ass-whooping.”

 

“Are you also acting like this because you’ve been misplacing your sketchbook these last few days? Because if so, it’s really okay, hyung. We have all been a bit all over the place this last week, with the tour coming up. You can’t blame Doyoung hyung for that!” Renjun reasoned, his hand coming up cautiously to rest on Ten’s shoulder. Ten visibly relaxed at the gesture, his tense body loosening up and his shaking hands calming down a bit.

 

“Yeah, yeah you kids are right. I should go and apologize for being so accusatory, huh? I almost feel bad for him and his cute little bunny smile. He’s lucky he’s cute or he would come off as much more annoying than he does.” Ten lets out a small chuckle and puts down his current project, getting up to go find Doyoung.

 

Finding Doyoung was not hard at all. He always spent his time away from the Dreamies in his office, cuddled up on his ancient beanbag, right next to that damn space heater that he loved so much. Ten never knew he could be jealous of an inanimate object until that heater. 

 

He originally tampered with it just to piss Doyoung off. It was funny to see Doyoung’s little eyes squint at him in irritation. But now that he knows messing with the thing will get Doyoung to cutely pout and stomp around the office, Ten couldn’t stop. He thought that the sight of a cute, pouty Doyoung was too good of an opportunity to ever miss. He looked like an angry bunny, the way he would thump his feet when he walked, and his little arms would be crossed at his chest. Ten thought he couldn’t be any cuter than that until he saw Doyoung, asleep, curled up under a blanket on his god-awful beanbag, right next to the heater. His cheeks were flushed from the heat, and he would let out little puffs of air every once in a while. It made Ten come to resent the space heater for being the only thing that got to see Doyoung like this. Stupid heater.

“Hey, Doyoung? Can I talk to you for a moment?” Ten asked quietly, his curls being the only thing you could see as his head peeked from around the corner.

 

Doyoung woke up with a light jolt, and he groggily turned and looked at the origin of the noise. He woke up instantly when he saw it was Ten, clad in what looked to be his casual clothes, his face bare of makeup. Doyoung thought he had never looked so beautiful. Not that he’d ever actually admit it. NOt out loud, at least.

 

“Are you here to yell at me again?” Doyoung sassed, sitting upright. Well, as upright as you can get in a rustic bean bag chair.

 

“I’m here to apologize, assface. I shouldn’t have yelled at you earlier for taking Delilah. I had no reason to, I was just stressed out. I’m sorry.” Ten took a few steps back, embarrassed. He ended up hiding his face in his sweatshirt paws when he couldn’t retreat anymore.

 

“Who the actual hell is Delilah?”

“My sketchbook.”

“Who names a sketchbook Delilah?”

“Me! Now can you save me the embarrassment and please just accept my apology? I get that you want to spend as much time with me as you can-because it’s me who are we kidding- but this is mortifying. I never apologize.” Ten flushed, looking away once more.

 

“Yeah. I think I should apologize too. I did actually move your sketchbook. But I wouldn’t have done it if I knew it would upset you so much.” Lie. Doyoung loved seeing Ten when he was irritated. It was a beautiful sight.

 

“I knew it was you! But, I suppose it’s alright babe. You can make it up to me some time.” Ten smiled his most innocent smile.

 

“A-alright. If you want me to. I guess.” Doyoung mumbled

 

“Truce?”

_

Now that the two were temporarily on good terms, the Dreamies made it their personal mission to get the two to resolve their “sexual tension,” as Jaemin so eloquently put it. He even got the whole group in on his little plan to get the pair together.

 

“What if we handcuff them together?” Jisung suggested, wiggling in his office chair, his hands fiddling with Chenle’s bright green hair, lightly tugging through the silky strands, pulling through tangles ever-so-gently. The boy in his lap hummed in contentment, leaning to bury himself further into Jisung’s chest, his head even further into the crook of Jisung’s neck

 

“I think that’s a great idea, Ji. We totally should add that to the board.” Chenle said tiredly, his eyes closing as he falls asleep in Jisung’s arms and snuggling up against his chest, lulled deeper by the rhythmic beating of Jisung’s heart.

 

“Yeah Jisung, I like the sound of that.” Jeno smiled his beautiful eye-smile and took a blue marker and wrote “HANDCUFFS?” at the bottom of the whiteboard in the cramped meeting room, the boys laughing wildly at what would’ve been said if anyone saw what they were writing.

 

“Oh! Jisung, I meant to ask earlier: What is going on with this whole thing?” Donghyuck gestured at the boy currently napping on his chest. Even in sleep, Chenle nestles impossibly closer to Jisung.

 

“What are you talking about?” 

 

The Dreamies were up to something, Doyoung could feel it in his very soul. They were quiet recently, and Doyoung knew that couldn’t be anything good. They had been so quiet, Donghyuck and Renjun hadn’t even been arguing, which really was the biggest red flag for Doyoung.

 

“What are you up to? You kids are planning something, I can feel it in my ass.”

 

“Isn’t the saying ‘I can feel it in my gut?’” Jeno pointed out

 

“It is, but my ass is a much more reliable source. Hasn’t failed me once.”

 

“But, to answer your question, no, hyung. We aren’t planning anything. Unless you count the surprise party we are planning for Ten hyung’s birthday?” Jeno added helpfully, then turning back to his ramen, and Doyoung failing to miss the tiny smirk that appeared.

‘It’s Ten’s birthday? How did I not know about that?” Doyoung thought, panicking internally. Was he supposed to get him a gift? What do you even get your ex-arch-nemesis for his birthday? Especially one who already had the best taste in everything? How does one buy a gift for the perfect man?

 

Jaemin, who had been listening in on the whole conversation, suddenly decided to pipe in.

 

“His birthday is Friday, hyung. I’m sure you can manage to come up with something to get him in three days? That’s plenty of time! Or, since I know you aren’t nearly creative enough to come up with your own gift, we all got him one for you. You’re welcome.” With that, Jaemin drummed his hands on Doyoung’s back and was off.

 

To be fair, Jaemin wasn’t lying. They really were planning a surprise for Ten’s birthday, and they really did buy a gift for Ten from Doyoung. They just didn’t say what the gift was, or what exactly they were going to do at said party. Doyoung and Ten were both in for a surprise they won't forget.

_

The fateful day had finally arrived. So far, the morning had been going well. Ten was delighted at the two layer cake the makeup department had made for him, and he loved the new sewing machine that the boys had all pitched in to get him. Now all that’s left is for Doyoung’s gift to Ten.

 

“It’s really not much, but I wanted to get you something to show you that I really want us to get closer. I hope you like it.” Doyoung quickly shot a glance at Renjun who shot him a thumbs-up. As Doyoung focused his gaze back at Ten, he failed to notice the boys rushing towards the door out of the break room.

 

“Handcuffs? Doyoung what the hell are these supposed to-” He was cut off by the sound of a door slamming shut and a lock clicking in place.

 

“Those little-”

_

“How long do they plan on keeping us in here? They do know that they can get in huge trouble for doing this? What even is the purpose of this?” Ten rambled, leaning against a table, looking only slightly miffed for the worry in his voice. 

 

‘How did he manage to look that good while not even doing anything? How is that possible? Is it too early in our friendship for me to ask for his hand in marriage?’ Doyoung thought wistfully.

 

“Well, Babe. I’m really flattered you think I look good, but don’t you think you should at least buy me dinner first? Let’s go get pizza sunday night, and then I’ll consider your offer for marriage.” Ten winked overdramatically, and Doyoung couldn’t move his eyes away from Ten’s intense stare quick enough. 

 

“What are you shy now for? You were just marveling in my beauty. Where did that Doyoung go?” Ten joked.

 

Doyoung rolled his eyes at Ten’s words, internally screaming about the reaction that the questions got out of him.

 

“Enough joking Ten.”

“Who said I was joking?”

 

Doyoung looked up to see that Ten had moved from his place at the table to a nice new spot right next to where Doyoung was sitting. Doyoung went rigid, not knowing what to do. Luckily, Ten knew exactly what he wanted. So, he leaned in slowly until his face was mere centimeters away from Doyoung’s. He was so close, Doyoung could feel Ten’s hot breath fan across his face. He snapped his neck to the side as to avoid the close proximity. As if he saw the action coming, Ten put his hand under Doyoung’s chin and gently turned his head to face him once more.

 

“I need you to say if you’re okay with this before I do anything, Doyoung.”

 

“Please d-”

 

He was cut off by the feeling of smooth, soft lips against his own chapped ones. He loved the feeling as their lips molded to accommodate the other’s, almost as if they were made to fit together like this. He let Ten lead him along as they kissed for what felt like hours but what really was more like minutes. They pulled away with swollen lips, red faces, and full hearts.

 

“Well babe, if you wanted to kiss me, you could’ve just asked me. I’m always down for a kiss from my favorite bunny. Now, about that marriage proposal-”

_

And, true to his words. Doyoung did take him out to dinner that Sunday, and on many more Sundays after that. It was fate (or just great planning) that Doyoung and Ten were having lunch together in that same breakroom as normal when Ten turned from looking longingly at Doyoung’s brownie to see his boyfriend on one knee beside his chair. He burst into tears when he saw that Doyoung was holding a velvet box the exact same color as the cover of his sketchbook nestled in Doyoung’s hands.

 

“My beautiful Ten. I have loved you with all of my heart over these past three years. I hope that you will do me the honor of letting me love you for the rest of my life.”

 

The Dreamies, who were, of course, listening in at the door, all burst into tears when they heard a muffled ‘yes’ and the sound of a book hitting the floor.

_

“You know, you really have us to thank for you two getting married,” Mark said, gaining a strong eye roll from the newlyweds.

 

“Yeah? And you have us to thank for Chenle and Jisung getting together! They wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for the company that employs us!” Doyoung retorts.

 

“Me and Jisung aren’t-”

 

“Yes, you are.” The whole table said in unison, looking at the two youngest who were now staring at each other hopefully. They shot each other a glance as if to ask ‘are we really?’ Jisung smiled at that and nodded, lacing his pinky with Chenle's below the table where the rest of the wedding party couldn’t see. What they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them.

_

It wasn’t brought up again until weeks later when Ten and Doyoung were laying together in their bed.

“I can not believe we figuratively adopted 7 kids. How did we end up in this position? Feels like just yesterday I was yelling at you for stealing my precious baby Delilah.” Ten sighed.

 

“You are never going to love me as much as you love that book.” Doyoung grumped.

 

“To be fair, you love your heater more than me.” Ten said in rebuttal.

 

Doyoung just hummed at that, pulling Ten against his just a little bit tighter.

 

“Wait, but if we metaphorically adopted all 7 of them, but Jisung and Chenle are dating, doesn’t that mean- You know what? Let’s not think about it.” Doyoung shivered.

“That’s probably for the best.” Ten giggled. He rolled over, shut off the light, and returned to his place in Doyoung’s arms, and whispered:

“I’m so glad I turned down your space heater.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated as always. let me know if you want me to write anything, I need inspiration
> 
> my twitter @kissesrenjun


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